I know not all of you stayed at the Motel 6 or the Sandpiper Lodge but I'd like to make it known the poor service and management participants received at the hotels.

However, I'd like to present my story to you in an effort to draw your business away from both locations for future 'fests.

To make the story short and sweet, the manager of Sandpiper had been giving people a hard time (on Friday & Saturday night) about being in the parking lot, chatting, looking at cars, and apparently making too much noise. We weren't even in the hotel on Saturday night as we were having dinner & drinks until about 2:30am.

This morning upon check-out (Sunday), he said he will be charging us for an additional $400 on top of the $300 rental fee as a surcharge for the noise complaints they had received specifically regarding our room on the first floor.

He backed-up his claim by saying the police had to come out multiple times on Friday and Saturday night between 2am and 3am. However, my girlfriend called the police department and said no units were ever sent out on any of the nights the manager had claimed.

My girlfriend and I had to call Santa Barbara police to come out this morning because the manager would not provide us an itemized receipt showing we had closed out our bill.

The officer showed up and demanded the manager provide us with a receipt. The manager finally conceded and provided the receipt. The manager was also unwilling to provide the hotel's rental policy to show why we were being charged.

I am going to present this information to any forum willing to listen, as well as local newspapers, the Better Business Bureau, and TV stations. The managers were completely unwarranted and I have plenty of people willing to vouch for me, my actions, and those that stayed with us.

This is not a thread whining about me being caught or trying to weasel out of consequences. We were not in the wrong and I'm willing to go extraordinary lengths to prove so.
I want to present our story to you to provide insight as to our experience with the hotel management we dealt with.

Detailed story:

I can only say that my friends and I were in the room most of the time chatting amongst ourselves and only stepping out to see who else who has arrived.

The evening was getting late and the manager began bullying us into staying in our rooms for fear of further complaints. However, we never received any warnings or hints of our activities being too loud or obnoxious. The first "incident" occurred when we were walking our friend back to Motel 6. The manager demanded that we not leave our room or if we were leaving, to make our guest leave the premises. We had been in the room for nearly an hour before we stepped out of the door. So instead of arguing, we walked back to Motel 6 and stayed there for about an hour.

Once at Motel 6, we were out near the dumpsters looking at cars and chatting. I guess someone complained again and management called SB PD. SB PD was really courteous and simply told us we need to quiet down and take the drinks inside. No argument there! We were polite to the officers and went on our way back to Sand Piper. A few minutes later, my girlfriend stepped out of our room at Sand Piper (around 12am) for a cigarette with our other friend. The manager demanded they go back into the room because he had received complaints - SPECIFICALLY about them being too noisy.

She was outside for no more than 5 minutes while smoking and looking at cars in the lot. We had the door cracked and we couldn't even hear her talking. She had actually walked farther down the lot so she wouldn't be disturbing anyone.

The manager again harassed them for being outside the room at a late hour. They accused my girlfriend and her friend for being noisy and having numerous received complaints about noise. She came back inside after the cigarette and the manager called our room to say the girls had received 7 complaints in the time they were outside, demanding to speak to the person whom have reserved the room.

He threatened to evict us specifically because of the two girls. He called back about 3 times (between 1am and 1:30am) trying to demand information. We finally unplugged the phone and went to bed at 2am because we were sick of explaining to him and trying to reason with the manager. He just wanted names, none of which he was entitled to IMO.

Today when we checked out, he again accused us of being too loud and saying police were called (and showed up) to calm us down. I asked him to present a police report and specific times that he had received the complaints - specifically indicating our room was the subject of the complaint, he could not/would not provide any such information.

I even went as far as to call the police department asking if they had dispatched any units to the hotel in the last 2 days, and they stated they received a request to send units, but the request was cancelled. No police units were sent out to Sand Piper Lodge for the complaints as the manager tried to accuse us of.

He also attempted to charge us extra for the people we had in the room, however the reservation policy states nothing about the number of people allotted in any single room.

Finally being fed-up (and having to make to to LA by 11:30am) we called the police. The officer had the patience to listen to both parties and we simply explained we want an itemized receipt.

The manager had the gall to tell the officer he could not provide us with a receipt. The officer then put his foot down and demanded the manager print a receipt out for us to show we closed the account.

After 1 hour of this, we were able to get on our way to LA.

So this story in short is our side of things. I am willing to accept liability for any consequences of my actions when I know I have done wrong, but in this case, we have simply done no wrong and there is no proof showing otherwise.

This is not about someone being irresponsible and trying to claim otherwise. I know for a fact we were not disturbing the peace nor were we rude towards the manager. We have plenty of people with us that are willing to vouch for our actions.

MalibuMafiaV

05-03-2009, 11:18 PM

Well.
Sounds like the manager wanted to make a extra buck.
And was jealous you all owned BMWs and were just having a good time and being happy.
I hope the best for you and I Hope you either didn't pay that extra fee. Get your money back or take him to small claims.

SoundOfSpeed

05-04-2009, 01:53 AM

I was outside when the cops came around 2am. They went to a room on the other side of the hotel from your guys' room. They called out somebody from the hotel and talked them him for a while.

The hotel manager confused your room with theirs, and charged you.

04SSHD

05-04-2009, 01:56 AM

Why do you keep going back to the same hotel year after year if you keep getting the same service???

Missmodena310

05-04-2009, 01:58 AM

i have heard alot of bad things about the sand piper:thumbdwn:

Bimmer Man

05-04-2009, 11:21 AM

Don't waste your time. Go to Ramada Ltd off of Turnpike. There is always a lot full of bimmers and the owner embraces the event. He is a fellow bimmer ethusiast and a stand up guy.

Bmwcat

05-04-2009, 11:39 AM

No problems at my motel in SB..the only trouble was a non-Bimmer guy acting badly..

bmwe30is

05-04-2009, 07:56 PM

Why do you keep going back to the same hotel year after year if you keep getting the same service???

I've never been treated poorly there until this year. Me and my friends have stayed at both hotels and never had a bad incident.

This is the first time it's happened to me and my friends.

Don't waste your time. Go to Ramada Ltd off of Turnpike. There is always a lot full of bimmers and the owner embraces the event. He is a fellow bimmer ethusiast and a stand up guy.

Duly noted. Thanks for the tip!

BTW, if any of you did stay there, please provide an honest (sincere & coherent) review at the following links:

I know the management there does not think much of us, nor our opinions, but because of their poor actions, I'd like to make sure they feel the consequences.

I would love to see Bimmerfest moved north to Monterey or Pismo Beach. The last two times ive been at Bimmerfest, ive seen a growing contempt from the city, police, and hotel owners ever time. For the hundreds of thousands of dollars we are bringing to their economy each year, i think we deserve a little better.

lairtok

05-13-2009, 07:12 PM

Yes, you are correct. The locals were giving us the finger and swearing the F word to us as we waited in the morning on the 101 Freeway to exit to the Polo Grounds...I must have personally spent $500 with the hotel and dinner up there...plus snacks from the local Trader Joe's etc...

ths916m3

05-13-2009, 09:20 PM

I was at the Motel 6 and didn't hear any commotion. A little bit of door slamming, but could of been that the doors were broke like ours were and wouldnt lock shut